Aces and Deuces are Wyld
by Emerald Viper
Summary: Alexander takes a challenge from Himitsu to infiltrate a fae lord's casino. The catch is, he can't use his powers. Takes place between Heaven Sent Sword and Tea for Bears. I've just started running a new game, so we'll see how this goes!
1. Chapter 1

**Aces and Deuces are Wyld**

An Exalted Story

(Takes place after "Heaven Sent Sword" and before "Tea for Bears")

Chapter 1

"You want me to _rob_ a _casino_?" I stared at Peleps Naveen.

The Admiral nodded gravely. He took a small sip from the glass of wine on his desk and glanced at his compass. It was rocking slightly, but that wasn't much of a surprise. The water was very choppy. I'd lost my breakfast over the bow of our ship, and was only too thankful to sit down in a chair in the Admiral's cabin. Despite Naveen's impressive sailing Charms, the weather had been rough for the past three days.

"I don't know what you've been told," I said. "But I'm a _calvary_ officer! I know less about thieving than I know about being on a ship."

My protest got a chuckle out of the old man. His entire crew had been laughing at me since I'd first come aboard. I wasn't accustomed to being uncoordinated, but it had taken me weeks to develop "sea legs". I still tripped occasionally. The Admiral, of course, was a Water-Aspect. He could go out and waltz across the waves if he had the mind to.

"Cathak, the Last Resort is a very dangerous place," Naveen sighed. "I don't like the idea of you going in there without backup, but Mnemon Rai told me that you prefer to work alone."

I grimaced. What Mnemon Rai _hadn't_ told Naveen was _why_ I couldn't have anyone with me.

I was sure the Admiral wouldn't be half as cordial if he knew that he was talking to one of the most feared "Anathema" in Creation.

Sometimes, I was thankful for the fatemangling that the Weeping Maiden had put me through. Only my father and my former commander actually knew that I was Alexander Faeslayer. From the perspective of everyone else, I was still Cathak Loren. The Sidereals had decided it was a lot easier to clean things up by pretending they'd never happened.

"So what is this thing that you need me to steal?" I asked.

"We're not certain," Naveen paused. "The owner of the Last Resort is a powerful fae lord called Maldict. Word has it, he's gotten his claws on something very nasty. He intends to give it away as a "prize" in some nonsensical game he's arranging. As I understand it, there are already players from Skullstone at his casino. And of course, anything the Silver Prince wants, he'd best not get his hands on it. The same goes for Wavecrest, and Lintha Dukatha. If this prize is as powerful as everyone in the West seems to think it is, we need it."

I said nothing. The Realm possessing some sort of fae doomsday device wasn't necessarily better than Wavecrest having it, but I wasn't about to protest. I'd rather see such a weapon in the hands of _anyone_ other than a fae lord, Deathlord, or demon. Regardless of their allegiance, most humans and Dragonbloods weren't keen on the idea of Creation itself being hurled back into the Wyld.

"All right," I paused. "So what you're asking me to do is infiltrate this place, find out what Maldict has, and take it away from him?"

"It would also be helpful if you could find out more about Maldict's game," Naveen added. "Identify some the other players. This could be a good opportunity to find out who our future foes might be. Mnemon Rai has told me that you're an expert on the Trickster Anathema."

Being married to a Changing Moon Lunar didn't make me an expert on anything that I was aware of.

In fact, most of the time I felt like an imbecile, trying to sort out _why_ Amira was sulking or throwing things. Still, if Lunars _were_ after the fae lord's prize, it was possible that I could have allies inside the casino. Of course, I'd have to reveal to the Sun King Seneshals that I was, in fact, a "Sun King" if I expected any cooperation out of them. They were generally a stodgy old bunch, the most conservative of the Lunar factions.

"That's a tall order," I told him.

What I didn't say was that I already knew agents of Heaven were also interested in the fae lord's prize. Unfortunately, I couldn't very well call them out. Most people don't believe that Sidereals exist.

"Somehow," Naveen said. "I get the impression that you'll be able to handle it."

"I'll do my best, sir," I said, excusing myself.

Naveen seemed like a good man. I was tempted to actually give him what he wanted… but I wasn't about to break a promise sealed by Heaven.

That sort of thing never ends well.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"Land, ho!" A sailor shouted. I'd been dozing off, but that call brought me to my feet.

A haze of bluish mist on the horizon warned that we were nearing the bordermarch. The Realm ship I was on couldn't dock at the Last Resort, and it couldn't wait for me.

"Good luck, Cathak," the Admiral said, as I climbed into a rowboat.

I'd have to make my own way to the casino. I had enough jade in my pockets to pay for reasonably good accommodations. Admiral Naveen promised to return for me in five days time, and I believed he'd keep his word.

The crew waved me off. A few men saluted, almost as if they thought they were sending me to my final rest. From what I'd heard about the Last Resort, that actually seemed like a normal reaction.

I began to row. The little physical exertion felt good. I hated being confined to a ship where there was no room for me to run or practice my forms. My friend Roach often complained that I was "addicted" to training, and he wasn't wrong about that. I had to train in order to focus my thoughts, and when I didn't I was listless and miserable.

Through the mist ahead, I saw a rickety-looking dock. The nearness of the Wyld made me nauseous. It was contained for the benefit of the resort's patrons and couldn't harm anyone, but I still wanted to invoke _Chaos Repelling Pattern_.

Of course, using Essence was expressively against the rules of Himitsu's wretched game.

I grimaced as the island came within sight. Though to an untrained eye, it might have seemed whimsical or even beautiful, a vast pleasure island filled with gambling parlors, theaters, restaurants, and houses of ill-repute… all I could see was the instability of it. If all of Creation was an ornate tapestry, what I was looking at was a burnt hole.

This was going to be harder than I thought.

I tied my boat. Ahead of me was a large gate made of coral, shells, gold, and pearls. Two massive bronze statues of pirates crossed their swords to form a dramatic entrance. An identical pirate, not more than four feet tall, scurried past me carrying a package.

Another tiny pirate pushed a cart full of linens. It was impossible to tell the servants apart, and I realized that was because they weren't men in costume. They were goblins, forged out of pure chaos.

"Yarr," one of the pirates growled, gesturing towards the gate.

"Is this the entrance?" I asked, although I'd already guessed as much.

"Yarr," another pirate replied in the affirmative. He had two hooks for hands, each one looped around a bucket of paint, and a brush clenched in his teeth. The way he scurried up a ladder to get to work made me even more nervous.

The pirates weren't necessarily conversationalists, but they did seem intelligent and attentive to their duties. That was worrying. For a goblin to be so diligent, its master had to be focused. Most fae lords were capricious and sometimes forgot about the existence of their spawn entirely.

I followed the pirate's directions. The main lobby of the hotel was an impossibly huge room, dominated by a chandelier four stories tall. All of the suites shared a long, spiraling balcony that served instead of stairs and made the lobby itself look like the inside of a nautilus shell.

The casino was very busy, which I'd expected. There were many humans of different unsavory types, many fae, a small group of Lintha, and a number of ghosts and undead, which I first noticed from their smell. Most of the gambling seemed to be going on in the next room, but through the open doors I could see emerald-green carpeting and what appeared to be a _dragon_ looming over a roulette wheel.

I composed myself and approached the reception desk. "I'd like a room," I said.

The woman at the desk gave me an odd look. Though she towered over the pirates and appeared human, there was something about her that I didn't like. If she wasn't fae herself, she was heavily tainted. The worst poxes weren't the ones which gave you scales or cloven hooves. They were the ones which ravaged the mind, transforming a normal person into something else entirely.

"Just one moment, please," she replied, blinking two sets of eyelids. She motioned for one of the pirates to approach. He moved very fast, despite having two peg legs. They exchanged several "yarrs" peppered with other incoherent nautical slang. A pair of guards followed, and my hand drifted towards the hilt of my sword. The guards were not "pirates". They were Wyld-tainted mortals dressed in suits of fanciful armor which made them look like pieces of a coral reef. Considering the décor of the place, they blended into the walls almost seamlessly. Such effective camouflage probably allowed them to go anywhere and watch _anyone_ without being noticed.

"There's no need to worry, sir," the receptionist said. "We have the _perfect_ room for you."

I nodded, not wanting to draw more attention to myself, and followed the guards quietly. When they turned down a dark, narrow corridor, I stopped.

"I'd like a suite with a view, please," I said, trying to underplay what I was really thinking.

Again, my fingertips drifted to the hilt of my sword, but I didn't get a chance to draw it.

Someone immediately clubbed on the back of the head.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

 _**Some Game "Spoilers" follow, but nothing that will ruin things._

I woke up in a prison cell. The first thing I consciously heard was the "yarrs" of one of the pirates, followed by the voice of a guard.

"The master has returned. He'll be along shortly, to have words with the Dragonblood."

Almost immediately, they dispersed.

I scrambled to my feet. I wasn't surprised that I'd been mistaken for a Fire-Aspect. My father was a Dragonlord, and I'd been raised as a Dynast. I didn't have red hair, but being on a ship had given me an especially good tan. Part of what made Dynasts recognizable wasn't physical, of course. It was how you carried yourself.

Of course, I worried that Maldict would recognize me for who and what I really was, and try to kill me immediately. The alternative was that the fae lord wouldn't notice anything, and would only leave me locked up. Neither option seemed appealing.

I shook the door of my cell. It didn't move much. There was a chance I _could_ tear it from its hinges, but not without using Essence. The lock was made in the shape of a grinning pirate's head, with the keyhole between two of the man's teeth. I saw it wink at me and decided to leave the accursed thing alone.

I sighed, flopped backwards into the bed, and stared at the ceiling. It was the only thing I could do.

I'd never been arrested before, and I didn't have the foggiest idea of how to make a shiv or a lockpick. Unlike Sapphire, I'd never done anything mundanely illegal. All of the crimes I was wanted for were more likely to inspire a bloody Wyld Hunt.

I cracked my neck, rolled over, and considered the floor. It was identical to the ceiling, made of stone blocks so tightly fitted together that it seemed some sort of magic was involved.

Not for the first time, I wondered how Sapphire and Veritas were faring. The tasks Himitsu had set them to were probably just as dangerous as the one he'd given me.

The three of us were trying to stop the Weeping Maiden _._ To earn Himitsu's support, we had to prove that we were capable of standing against her _._ That was no small thing. The Primordial known as the Weeping Maiden was the mother of the Five Maidens _._ Her ability to change the fundamental nature of Creation was unparalleled. The Weeping Maiden wasn't just a force of pure chaos, as so many other Primordials were. _She_ was a storyteller, and everyone she encountered had to fit into her never-ending tale. If we challenged the Weeping Maiden, she wouldn't destroy us outright. It would amuse her more to Shape us into different versions of ourselves. Forcing her victims to live a life based on the choices they _hadn't_ made seemed to be one of her favorite tactics. As I understood it, Heaven was still reeling from the mess she'd made five years ago.

I needed to think. What would I do if I _wasn't_ an Exalt?

That was a surprisingly difficult question. I discovered that I couldn't formulate any reasonable plan which did not involve Charms, Sorcery, or at very least, my daiklave.

Himitsu was right. Having power _did_ make me lazy.

I heard footsteps coming down the hall and I dove into my bed, pulling the dirty blanket up to my chin. Feigning sleep was the easiest way to listen to the guards without drawing attention to myself. Most likely, they didn't care if I heard them or not. They'd arrested me because I was a Realm officer. Usually, having a uniform on meant preferential treatment, or at least wary respect. But if the casino's employees were instructed to apprehend Realm soldiers on sight, that certainly explained why none of the Admiral's men had successfully infiltrated the Last Resort. I did wonder why he hadn't figured that out yet, and wondered if I'd been set up.

Sidereals were tricky like that, which was one of the reasons I loathed working with them.

The guards drug in three new prisoners. One of them was a girl, no older than sixteen who looked like she'd been through some sort of ordeal. Her clothes were torn, and I smelled sulphur. I knew enough to associate that scent with demon-summoning, which meant trouble. With her were two others, slightly older than she was, but still children from my perspective. The first was a young man in nondescript black clothing who looked a little wild-eyed and skittish. The second was a woman with feathers in her yellow hair. She was dressed like a pirate and smelled like whiskey.

The guards kicked the three into the cell across from mine and left. Once they were gone, I sat up to have a better look at my fellow prisoners.

The feather-haired woman looked at me with an expression of disdain. I wasn't surprised. The West wasn't fond of the Realm, strictly speaking.

"So what are you in for?" The girl asked, wiping soot off her face with her sleeve.

"I tried to check in," I replied, tugging on my collar to show my insignia. It was part of the character I was trying to play, and I hoped that little gesture added to my ruse. "And you?"

"I accidentally stumbled into a demon-summoning," the girl replied.

"I saved her when she fell off the balcony," the man in black added.

"I didn't do _anything_ ," the feather-haired woman rolled her eyes. "He's the one that always gets us into trouble!" She shoved the man in black.

"You can't keep blaming everything on me!" The man in black protested.

"I'll stop blaming you when something happens that you're _not_ responsible for!" the feather-haired woman retorted.

The two were quibbling like a married couple, which was what I was starting to suspect they were. The girl only sighed and rolled her eyes. It seemed that she'd been listening to their banter for a long while and was tired of it.

"From what I've seen, the guards arrest anyone they think _might_ disrupt business. This casino isn't under the jurisdiction of any of the powers of the West, so technically, the only _law_ around here is the master's," the girl sighed.

The other new prisoners nodded. They seemed to understand the situation we were in, and I wondered if they hadn't been brought before the fae lord already. If someone was summoning demons in the hotel, that certainly explained why Maldict hadn't come down to see the insignificant Realm officer rotting in his prison.

"We need to get out of this cell," the feather-haired woman declared.

The man in black nodded. He pulled a little piece of metal out from behind his ear, bent it, and set to work on the cell door. The lock grumbled and wobbled like a living thing, chewing up his lockpick. I'd already sensed that there was some foul fae sorcery in the locks and had wisely decided _not_ to poke at them. I was doubly glad for my restraint when the lock growled and angrily spit a tiny, sharp piece of metal at the thief. It struck him between the eyes and he swore.

"Well, there goes that idea," the girl observed. "Anyone else have a suggestion?"

"How strong do you think these bars are?" The feather-haired woman asked.

I shrugged. "Very, I suspect."

The truth was, I hadn't actually _tried_ to bend the bars. Escaping by such obvious means would make me a prime target for the guards, and I'd never get close enough to their master.

The feather-haired woman smiled slightly. Silver essence rippled across her body, and she began to change shape. I was very familiar with Lunars, and secretly pleased to find a potential ally… but I also had to remember the character I was supposed to be playing.

I backed up a little in my cell, tried to look shocked, and uttered a word I hadn't said in a very long time. "Anathema!"

The Lunar assumed the form of a little songbird and hopped between the bars of her cell. Once in the hallway, she changed shape again, into the impressive hybrid of human and animal that Luna's chosen refer to as their "War Forms".

The Lunar scowled at me, not pleased that I'd called her "Anathema".

Her War Form was that of a large, golden-colored bird of prey. She certainly looked very dangerous, and I remembered hearing something about a kind of eagle native to the West known for plucking monkeys out of trees and violently tearing them to pieces. From what little I'd seen of her, the Lunar _did_ have a short fuse, and she was giving me a look that reminded me of my own troubling, monkey-like condition.

From the outside, she seized the bars of the cell and tried to bend them so her companions could escape. When that course of action didn't work, the Lunar and the thief started hammering on the cell door, shaking it hard, but not enough to do any damage. Watching them struggle, I was even more tempted to see if I could tear my cell apart, but with an audience I didn't dare test my real strength.

Unfortunately, the noise the two were making did not go unnoticed.

As the guards came to investigate, the Lunar returned to her human form. It was a lot of shape-shifting in a very short period of time, and the Essence she'd burned was beginning to show. Only a very experienced eye would notice her tattoos sparkling faintly. Changing human seemed like a miscalculation to me, when the Lunar might have become a tiny songbird again and flown away… but there were a lot of things that Lunars did which never made sense from my perspective.

The guards noticed her inexplicably standing outside of her cell, and moved to grab her.

She wasn't swift enough to evade them, and didn't struggle nearly as much as I expected. One of the guards checked the lock of the cell, and that was when I realized that I was seeing some sort of plot in action. The thief didn't move, but he watched the door.

Satisfied that the cell was secure, the guards opened it back up to throw the Lunar inside. As she stumbled forward, the thief shot out of the cell. He dropped the first guard with a sharp, bone-shattering kick and used his momentum to sweep the second guard to the floor.

"Get me out of here!" I shouted, as they were about to flee. "I'll help you!" I volunteered, though I had no idea what they were planning to do.

"Why should we trust you?" The Lunar snorted.

"I don't expect you to _trust me_ ," I replied. "But I want out of this place as bad as you do, and if it's the master's prize you're after, you're going to need help."

At the mention of the word "prize", both the thief and the girl nodded.

The Lunar still looked doubtful, but her companions glanced at one another, considering my offer. The thief seized keys from one of the guards he'd disabled and opened my cell.

I immediately helped myself to a sword. The thief and the Lunar took point. My gaze drifted to the girl, who didn't look like much of a fighter.

"Stay behind me," I advised, taking her hand.

We ran down the hall, passing through the first of several security doors just in time to see the four guards turning the corner. The thief managed to dodge their swords, and the Lunar did a lot of damage to one of the walls pummeling it with her fist, although she missed the man she was attacking. I evaluated my position, and stepped in front of the girl. The first guard on my left was too slow to evade my blade, but the second drove through following his parry and stabbed me in the shoulder.

Taking a wound made me even more tempted to resort to using Essence, but a flurry of blows diverted my attention right before I would have instinctively invoked one of my favorite Charms.

I killed a second guard, and a third. The thief and the Lunar both stared at me, as if they weren't entirely sure what they'd just witnessed.

Four more guards came running, and two of them had firewands. The thief cleanly dispatched the first, and I realized that he was wearing an impressive pair of clawed gloves, of the style favored by one particularly arrogant Water-Aspect Dragonblood I knew. Where he'd gotten the gloves, I didn't know, but I was beginning to suspect that he was also an Essence-user, and had called the weapons to him just as I usually summoned my daiklave.

I was very tempted to do that. I broke the sword I'd taken against the wall and cursed my own incompetence. I knew I had to pull my blows when I fought with an ordinary weapon, but in the heat of battle I always forgot to. A shot from a firewand grazed my shoulder, and a second shot was fired at the girl.

The girl stared at the guard who was trying to kill her like a startled deer. It looked like she was about to die, but I lunged to intercept the shot before it found its target. The force of the shot squarely hitting my chest shattered my lamellar and dropped me to my knees. My vision swam. I'd almost forgotten how _easy_ it was for a mere mortal to die. I felt certain that Himitsu had planned that lesson specifically for me.

Still, even without my Charms, I was hard to kill. I'd survived more than ten years in the Realm's most notorious Wyld Hunt before I'd Exalted. I'd been wounded more times than I could remember, and always survived somehow.

The fact that I was still breathing did earn me a few more suspicious looks.

The Lunar bent down over one of the dead guards. She whispered something incoherent, and took some of his blood on a handkerchief. With another few words, she changed shape again, assuming the form of the man she'd killed. She stripped off his armor and put it on.

"Very impressive," I said.

She gave me another suspicious look, and I remembered that I was supposed to be playing a Realm officer. Realm officers did _not_ compliment demons, even when they were exceptionally talented.

"We'd better split up," the Lunar said. "More guards will be coming soon."

That was all the incentive I needed. I stripped off my damaged armor and threw it into a garbage bin. There was still blood all over my shirt, but in a casino infested with fae, demons, and the dead, I wondered if that would even attract notice.

"I'm Alexander," I said, offering my hand. No one took it.

"Nick," the thief said.

"Mina," the girl added.

The Lunar only snorted. She still didn't trust me, and I didn't blame her. I wasn't entirely sure what I was going to do myself.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

We parted ways. I kept to the shadows and looked for a laundry, or an open room where I could find myself something to wear that wasn't soaked in blood. I needed to tend to my wounds also. They weren't as serious as they looked, but I expected more trouble. I'd taken another sword from the guards we'd killed, but I didn't think it would last very long.

I eventually found my way to a large round room which looked like some kind of arena. There were benches from floor to ceiling, two massive gates, and an elaborate private box with red velvet curtains. The arena itself was filled with water, and from where I stood I could see things swimming in the shadows which made me wonder just how deep that water was.

A group of four men in yellow tabards were sitting together in the empty seats. They watched me as I approached. I was still covered in blood.

"Is there a changing room around here?" I asked, trying to seem nonchalant.

"Which team are you on?" One of the men asked. Upon closer examination, I guessed the team was from Wavecrest. Some of their heads were shaved, their noses and ears were pierced, and their bodies was covered in tribal tattoos which paid homage to the archipelago's volcano gods.

"A… new team," I replied. "It'll be our first night." I was a terrible liar. Bluffing was Sapphire's preserve. She could fabricate her entire life story with a smile on her face, and usually I preferred to just stand quietly behind her.

"I'd heard there was a new blue team," another of the Wavecrest men remarked. "What happened to you?"

 _Blue team_. I filed that away.

"Training accident. It's less serious than it looks," I told him. That, at least, was the truth.

The Wavecrest team members all nodded, and one of them pointed to the gate on the far side of the arena. "The blue team locker room is over there," he said.

"Thanks," I nodded.

I followed the directions I'd been given. I didn't know how long it would be until members of the _real_ blue team showed up. Possibly, I could convince them that I would be a good addition, but I didn't know what the game we were playing actually was.

In the locker room, it was loud and very warm. I could hear some sort of mechanical racket coming from inside the walls, and I followed the sound to a cleverly-concealed corner panel. When I removed the panel, there was a burst of steam and I found myself staring at a strange device that seemed equal parts marine life and machine. I quickly covered it back up when it blinked at me with a pair of stalk eyes.

Veritas would know what monster I'd uncovered, I was certain. Bio-mechanical horrors were one of his specialties, along with incredibly irritating constructs and pocket dimensions.

It was frustrating, trying to sort things out on my own. It made me especially aware of my own weaknesses. My Circlemates and I worked much better as a team. I hoped they were doing all right without me. I was especially nervous about Roach. He wasn't a pawn in Himitsu's game, but he was responsible for taking care of all of Nexus while we were away. Playing "The Emissary" was his favorite thing to do, and I worried that he might have a little too much fun.

I found a group of lockers that were marked with blue paint, and opened the one closest to me. There was a clean shirt and a blue tabard inside, along with a note in the most perfect handwriting imaginable.

 _Congratulations on making it this far without violating the terms of our agreement._

 _Best of luck in the competition._

Not for the first time, I wondered why Heaven let Himitsu have access to the Loom of Fate. As far as I could tell, he seemed to pull on its threads chiefly for his own amusement.

A team in green tabards came into the locker room. I didn't have to see them to know that they were either demon-worshippers or Lintha. The smell of sulphur was overwhelming. I tried not to show my disgust as they passed me by.

A few minutes later, a second team in red arrived. They looked normal enough, which made me suspect immediately that they were Heaven's agents. One of the men I was certain I'd seen before. His eyes were red, and stars flickered in his pupils.

 _A Sidereal_ , Chosen of Battles. Of course.

The man flinched. He reacted as if he'd just been bitten by something. While I didn't hate Sidereals the way Veritas did, it still pleased me to see them get a little Paradox from time to time. Something had to keep Heaven accountable for its actions.

There was a board showing the upcoming matches posted above the door, and I glanced at it. At least two more teams, purple and black, were still unaccounted for, and there was also a "house team". I thought of Maldict's pirate golems and grimaced. The other teams, probably, were sharing the locker room on the opposite side of the arena. I didn't expect to be welcomed in there, which meant that my first opportunity to size up my opponents would be when they entered the arena.

I was a little more concerned about my teammates and the rules of the game, but if Himitsu had already anticipated my entry into the competition, the smartest thing I could do was stay right where I was. The blue team's first match was against a group identified as "black". The second match would put us against a "mystery challenger", and the third against the winners of either "yellow versus green" or "red versus purple".

The final round, assuming we made it that far, would probably be against Maldict's own minions. The symbol on the board was a grinning pirate. It winked at me, and I wished I had something to throw. The possibility of fighting undead, demons, Sidereals, _and_ fae without using Essence was not something I was looking forward to.

Even over the din of the strange, Wyld-tainted machine-monster, I could hear people filing into the arena. A fanfare of trumpets announced the arrival of someone important, probably Maldict himself. I couldn't make heads or tails out of what he was saying, and wished that I dared to use a Charm. There was an audible reaction of shock and awe as he unveiled something, probably the fabulous prize. The sound of a cannon firing announced the start of the matches, and the green team left the locker room to face their opponents.

As the green team headed out past the guards, the Lunar and the thief from earlier slipped in. The girl who'd been with them was gone. Even still, I guessed that I was looking at the ones Fate had chosen to be my teammates.

"What are you doing here?" The thief, Nick, asked.

"Hiding from the guards, mostly," I admitted. "And you?"

"We were going to compete for the prize," Nick admitted. "But we can't find our other teammates." He looked me over, obviously considering whether or not I might be willing to join his team. "I don't suppose you'd be willing to play?"

"What team are you on?" I asked.

"Blue," he said.

 _Of course._

I pretended to think about his offer.

"All right," I agreed. "But this looks like some sort of water battle, and I should warn you that I'm not a very good sailor. Do you know what the rules are?"

The Lunar stared at me. "We were hoping _you_ knew."

I glanced around the room. The red team was awaiting their turn in the arena, but they were also watching us. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a white sign. It read "Arena Rules".

 _1\. No weapons._

 _2\. No sorcery._

 _3\. Anything within the arena can be used._

 _4\. Being knocked from your boat earns the opposing team one point._

 _5\. If a boat is crippled, or if all team members are in the water at the same time, victory is_

 _awarded to the opposing team._

I pointed to the sign, and my teammates read it over.

"Sounds simple," Nick said.

"It's not going to be," the Lunar replied. "That's barely any rules at all. _Anything_ in the arena?" She prompted. "That water is pretty deep. What do you _think_ might be down there?"

I nodded solemnly.

A loud buzzer announced the end of the first match. The Lintha team sauntered back into the locker room, smelling even more like sulphur and looking very pleased with themselves. I somewhat suspected that the rules "no weapons" and "no sorcery" were more "guidelines", and that we might expect some fairly cutthroat competition. Obsessed as he was with pirates, I was sure that cheating and gratuitous violence was _exactly_ what Maldict was hoping for.

The second match went a little longer than the first. The red team walked away victorious, although they looked a little worried by the competition they'd faced. Arrogant as agents of Heaven usually were, I was sure they'd expected to walk away unscathed. One of the team members had a nasty burn on his back that looked like he'd been hit with a flaming octopus, and another one's arm was wobbling around, boneless, like a wet noodle.

The arena had _something_ in it all right, and that something was raw Wyld.

I took a deep breath. We were up next.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Entering into the arena, I was struck by the size of the crowd. The place seemed bigger than it had been when I'd gone into the locker room, and I wondered if Maldict had expanded it, specifically to accommodate a larger audience.

I couldn't see the fae lord himself, but the curtains of his private box were open, and there were guards and pirates with silver serving trays waiting on someone seated in the darkness.

In front of us was an awkward-looking sailboat with a small cannon mounted on the bow. Next to the cannon was not a pile of cannonballs or powder, but a _bucket_ filled with iridescent water which rippled and bubbled suspiciously.

Across from us was another small boat, cloaked in shadow. The crew consisted of three skeletons, and a tall, pale, woman dressed in soulsteel armor.

 _A Deathknight._

I didn't want to lose Himitsu's challenge, but if the Deathknight broke the rules, I _would_ call for my daiklave. The last Deathknight I'd fought had almost killed me, and I'd been wearing superheavy orichalcum plate at the time.

The match began. The Deathknight's boat swept towards us, and the skeletons loaded something into their cannon. The shot flew wide of mark as Nick expertly turned our boat. He obviously had some experience with a similar craft. As I understood it, such boats were common in the west with fishermen and smugglers.

The shot from the cannon _did_ burn a suspiciously squid-shaped hole in our sail. Another shot rocked the side of our boat. I almost hit my head on the mast, and the Lunar fell backwards into the water.

A bell rang, and a scoreboard appeared above our heads, showing that the opposing team had earned one point. I cursed our sloppy tactics, at least until I noticed that our Lunar had changed into a shark and was swimming towards our opponent's boat.

Seizing the opportunity that presented itself, Nick reached into the bucket and produced a writhing cannonball that looked like an octopus with its legs tied into a knot. One bulbous yellow eye looked at us, and he shoved the creature into the cannon, despite its attempts to use its legs to escape. The shot Nick fired went straight up, and put out one of the arena lights above our heads. Broken glass and squirming pieces of Wyld-tainted octopus seared with black powder rained down on us.

I pushed Nick aside and reached into the bucket myself. The thing I grabbed was some sort of Wyld horror, purple and full of teeth. I managed to shove it into the cannon, but not before it nearly bit my fingers off.

The cannonball crawled halfway out of the cannon before I could get the flint struck, and when we fired it flew wide of mark, hitting someone in the audience on the far side of the arena. There was a lot of screaming from the man that had been struck, and too much laughter from everywhere else.

I gritted my teeth. I hadn't meant to hit the man, and I certainly didn't think it was funny that he had a monster attached to his face. I hoped someone near him had the sense to remove the thing before it sucked out his soul or gave him some horrible pox.

The Deathknight gave a self-satisfied smirk, as if she thought she'd already won.

Her smug expression evaporated when something rocked her boat from below. A dozen sharks were ramming the underside of the craft with their heads. Two of the skeletons immediately tumbled overboard, and two points appeared on the scoreboard for our team.

The Deathknight snarled and drew a nasty-looking longsword. A loud buzzer sounded, and the weapon evaporated in her hand. The rule "no weapons" appeared on the scoreboard, and the single point she'd earned by knocking our Lunar overboard was deducted from her team.

I noticed a triangular fin zipping towards the Deathknight's boat, and realized we hadn't seen the last of our Lunar's toothy minions. The Deathknight almost fell into the water as a very large shark bit down on the side of her boat. It began to sink. Before her feet could get wet, the Deathknight leap gracefully into the audience.

Confetti rained down on us. Our Lunar resumed her human form and scrambled into our boat. We'd won, but we certainly hadn't seen the last of our opponent. The Deathknight watched me as she stormed out of the arena, and I expected I would need to start checking over my shoulder for trouble hiding in every shadow.

Round two started with the Sidereals and the Lintha. It ended with both teams staggering back into the locker room even more mangled than before. The Sidereals won by only a very narrow margin, and neither team was fit to continue.

The "mystery challengers" were announced, and we returned to the arena. An old Water-Aspect Dragonblood was standing on the little boat, with three men behind him. I guessed the Dragonblood for an outcast, which meant that he could be working for Coral, Wavecrest, or possibly just himself. I wondered if he knew my old friend Jing Wei, and decided not to drop any names. As I understood it, Jing Wei had a lot more enemies than allies.

As soon as the buzzer sounded, the Dragonblood leapt from his boat and raced across the surface of the water.

I sidestepped his charge, but Nick noticed him coming too late and was tackled over the railing. The point that the Dragonblood would have earned from knocking Nick overboard was immediately subtracted by his preemptive foul, but he'd definitely caught us offguard. His minions were prepared too. They fired two shots, the first a flaming octopus that burned another hole in our already damaged sails, and the second a pair of snapping clams chained together that cracked our mast. Another direct hit, and I knew we'd be sunk.

There were a dozen Charms I could think of that would sway things in our favor, but I hadn't forgotten Himitsu's challenge. I grimaced and seized a "cannonball" from our bucket of ammunition instead. Shoving it into the cannon proved to be too difficult, so I hurled it as hard as I could.

The Dragonblood looked up from thrashing Nick as the cannonball I'd thrown caught one of his men in the face, wrapping octopus tentacles completely around his head. The man fell into the water, and Nick seized the opportunity.

He grabbed the Dragonblood by his legs, which were firmly planted on the surface of the water, and flipped over the Dragonblood's head. I noticed he had his claws again, although I hadn't seen the weapons moments before. If he'd summoned them using Essence, he'd done so very quickly and discreetly. No points were deducted from our team, at least not until Nick cut the throat of the Dragonblood who'd been trying to drown him.

Bleeding profusely, the Dragonblood tried to run, but he didn't make it far.

The blood drew the attention of the sharks in the water, and the old man couldn't fight them all off.

The Dragonblood's remaining minions considered the probable outcome of our battle and retreated back to their team's dock, conceding defeat.

We'd won again.

The scoreboard changed to show the matches, outlining which teams had been victorious, and which were still able to continue. The competition had not been kind to our opponents.

The final round would be Maldict's minions... and _us._


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

A too-brief respite allowed us to return to the locker room and consider our plans for the final round.

"The sharks have been helpful so far, but Maldict has seen us use them twice now," I paused. "His goblins will be prepared."

"I think that we might have something else to worry about too," the Lunar admitted. "When I was in the water, I saw an octopus acting very strange. I think it was looking for something. I also don't think it was an ordinary octopus."

"An artifact? Construct?" I suggested.

"No, definitely alive. Maybe a Lunar," she admitted. "It's hard to say, but I think everyone who's _not_ fighting in the arena is probably using these matches as a distraction so they can search this place."

"That's probably what we should have done," Nick said. "But I still like the idea of winning."

"The next match is not going to be easy," I reminded him.

Both of my teammates nodded solemnly.

"Do you have a weapon?" Nick asked.

"I broke the damned sword I took earlier," I admitted. "And so I took another one, but I think someone on the green team stole it while we were fighting. But anything I can get my hands on, I can use."

"So we've noticed," the Lunar smiled slightly.

"Throwing cannonballs does seem to be easier than loading them. If slightly less effective," I replied.

"Well, I guess what we've been doing so far is as good of a plan as any. But if we start losing… we should probably abandon ship and go straight for that prize," Nick suggested.

"You won't make it past Maldict himself. You can't kill a fae lord," I warned him.

"That's what you think. I can kill _anybody I want_ ," he retorted.

I eyed him suspiciously. Not for the first time, I suspected there was more to the man than met the eye.

"Do you know what the prize is?" I asked.

They both stared at me. I was genuinely surprised.

"You signed up for this without knowing the rules, and you don't know what the prize is either? Are you two mad?" I demanded.

The Lunar only shrugged.

I buried my head in my hands. Of course, I knew that there were plenty of Exalts who got into trouble simply because they were petty, bored, power-hungry, or simply insane. The Eclipse Caste of my former Circle was all of the above. Generally speaking, I didn't like that kind of behavior. Exalts who acted like barbarians were the reason that most of Creation thought we were all demons.

I wasn't in the mood to give a lecture, and I still wasn't sure if Nick was even an Exalt. I was beginning to suspect that he might be, possibly even a fellow Solar considering the Lunar's attachment to him. Sometimes I wondered about the Unconquered Sun's choices. I was far from perfect myself, but there were a number of other Solars I'd met who made me look _saintly_ by comparison.

A fanfare of trumpets and an ominous drumroll announced the beginning of the final round. We climbed aboard our boat, which was already taking on some water and a lot less maneuverable with only half of its sail.

Entering into the arena across from us was a very small pirate ship. It was equipped with two cannons, and looked a lot tougher than our sad little boat. Four goblin pirates were aboard. Two looked familiar to me. The first had hooks for both hands, and the second had pegs for both legs. The third had an eye patch. Last of all was the goblin captain, who had a parrot perched on his shoulder and burning matches braided into his black beard.

"Where's Dani?" Nick asked me.

"Who?" I eyed him suspiciously… and then realized that he was talking about the Lunar.

Sure enough, she was gone. The scorekeepers didn't seem to notice that she'd left our boat, and I wondered if she'd been in the water before we entered the arena. A heavy metal object landed on the deck of our boat. It was a nasty-looking harpoon with at least twenty feet of barnacle-encrusted chain attached.

"Look what I found," Dani grinned. "It was in the arena."

The buzzer sounded, and the scoreboard subtracted a point from our team. Someone had noticed that the Lunar was in the water. We were starting at a disadvantage, but it still seemed worthwhile.

Nick evaluated the harpoon. He put all of our remaining powder into the cannon, and Dani jammed the harpoon into the barrel. If it didn't fire cleanly, we'd probably blow ourselves to bits, but we'd never survive exchanging fire with the goblins.

The goblins were coming towards us very fast, and they'd loaded both of their cannons.

A pair of squid covered in black powder and chained together with iridescent links of metallic flesh cut our mast in half, and an octopus knocked me into the water. Dani's sharks apparently thought anything that fell of a ship was fair game, and they were coming right towards me.

Nick fired the harpoon, striking the pirate's ship right through the heart of the figurehead. The wooden mermaid actually looked startled at the piece of steel protruding from her chest and frantically tried to pull it out. The pirates growled and "yarred", waving their hooks at us. Maybe the hooks weren't technically considered weapons, but as they pulled out a pair of gangplanks, I couldn't help imagining how nasty those things could be, cutting into a flesh.

A shark nearly got my leg. I kicked it in the gills and started swimming faster.

Nick heaved me back on board.

"Grab the rope," I ordered. We all took hold of it.

"On the count of three, pull as hard as you can," I paused. "One, two… three!"

Exalts or not, my teammates were stronger than they looked, and the chain miraculously held. The pirate's ship came towards us with such speed that one of the goblins knocked himself overboard with the gangplank he was preparing. The ship was close enough that I could reach out and punch one of the other goblins, which was tremendously satisfying. He flew about thirty feet.

As the second goblin hit the water, a horrifically loud grinding sound echoed throughout the arena, followed by the sound of rushing water. A huge waterspout shot up between our boat and the pirate's ship, throwing both vessels into the air, smashing them to kindling, and scattering everyone. Before the score could be counted, the doors of the locker room burst open, pouring out more water and flooding the stands.

The audience panicked and fled for the exits. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Maldict rise from his seat. A shark almost bit my head off, and I saw Nick struggling to pull himself up onto the remains of our boat.

"The prize! Now!" I shouted. I saw the remains of our harpoon, the wooden mermaid still impaled, and decided that she would serve as a reasonably good bludgeoning weapon. The wooden mermaid flapped her tail at me as I picked her up and used her to strike the nearest shark. There were too many of them, though, and one did get a good bite out of my left leg.

The water level continued to rise. I saw Dani and Nick climb into Maldict's private box, and Dani narrowly dodge the fae lord's arm, which grew into an enormous, spiked crab pincer and tore down all of his curtains as he swung it. They were holding their own, but they wouldn't be able to keep it up for long, not when they were so badly outmatched.

A flock of panicked gulls came from the direction of the hotel, all diving to a spot on Maldict's balcony. In a burst of green light, they assumed the shape of the little girl I'd protected, the one who'd identified herself as "Mina". Although I couldn't see her clearly, the green essence around her told me everything I needed to know.

A Sidereal. Of course.

I whipped another shark with the mermaid, punched a pirate that was trying to strangle me, and climbed my way up into Maldict's box myself.

The fae lord stared at me. He'd done a good job of bloodying up Nick and Dani in a fairly short amount of time, not that I was surprised. Fighting fae is a very specialized form of combat which requires diligent training. Even an Exalt might be expected to have trouble when faced with fae sorcery.

I looked for a weapon of opportunity. There wasn't one, and I was still beholden to the terms of Himitsu's bet.

"Grab the prize and go!" I ordered.

Nick didn't need any coaxing.

The moment I tackled Maldict, he smashed the glass box displaying the prize, seized the small ornate box inside, and ran across the waves with a speed that made it obvious he was using a Charm.

Dani shifted into the form of a bird, and the Sidereal invoked her spell _again,_ flying after the Lunar. Two spells, even two Emerald Circle spells back-to-back like that was taxing. When she'd come to defend her charges from Maldict, I'd also noticed her carrying some sort of starmetal cleaver and wearing a strange-looking artifact gauntlet on her left hand that I was sure I'd seen before.

One thing was certain. Little "Mina" was certainly tougher than she appeared to be.

I didn't have the time to worry about the three who were escaping with Himitsu's prize. Since he'd set them up as my allies, I was certain he knew who they were and could track them if he chose to. I had more important things to worry about.

Maldict decided he no longer needed any of the bones in his neck. His spine made a sound like a lightning-struck tree, and he snapped at me like a snake. The arm of his that I was holding melted into seafoam, and the one with the crab claw came down hard on my back.

It almost knocked the wind out of me.

The fae lord escaped my grasp by changing shape again. He whipped a tentacle around my leg, knocking me to the ground and then into the nearest wall. I still had nothing to fight with, so I seized a piece of the shattered balcony and clubbed him with it repeatedly.

"Himitsu!" I shouted, certain that the bastard could hear me. He was probably watching.

The water in the arena had risen even higher, and was sloshing over the edge of Maldict's private box. The whole arena was tilted in a way that made it obvious to me the island was sinking. The Last Resort was on its way to the bottom of the ocean.

In a way, I was glad for that. I'd wanted the place destroyed from the moment I'd first laid eyes on it, but I would have preferred less innocent deaths and possibly escaping myself.

I took another hit from the fae lord's vicious crab claw. Water splashed over my face.

"Himitsu!" I repeated, yelling as loud as I could while simultaneously choking.

I wanted to hear the Sidereal say that his game was up, and that I'd won. I'd gotten him the key in a roundabout way, and I hadn't used a single Charm. Of course, now I was wrestling Maldict alone, and about to drown if I couldn't end our fight quickly.

"I thought you'd be a more formidable opponent," Maldict sneered, evaluating me with an arrogant glare. "I heard how you brought down the mighty Red Queen of the East." He grabbed my wrist in his pincers, and squeezed it almost to the point of breaking. "Are you... or are you _not_ Alexander the Faeslayer?"

I took a deep breath. I was still playing Himitsu's game. Maldict was _trying_ to get me to react, to do what came easiest to me. It would have been simple for me to call my daiklave and cut that arrogant monster in half. But in doing that, I'd be losing our bet and betraying my Circlemates, who were no doubt also risking their lives.

That was something I wouldn't do. My free hand touched on something the water had just washed up next to me, something I recognized immediately.

I seized what I'd found and wretched myself free of the fae lord's grasp. I might have done some damage to my wrist in the process, but I scarcely felt the pain. Maldict was startled by what I'd done, and I used his moment of shock to stab him cleanly through the chest with the harpoon I held, which was no longer attached to the wooden mermaid.

I didn't wait to see if he would die. If ordinary stabbing wouldn't kill him, I'd surely have to resort to Charms. His death wasn't _specifically_ part of our bargain, and the Last Resort was obviously on its way to the bottom of the sea. The arena tilted again, and a wave of water picked me up. It swept me through the hall that led to the gambling areas, and I passed the Deathknight clinging to an upside-down table.

Several scantily-clad women splashed and screamed, and two little gods battled a dozen of Maldict's tiny pirates in order to stay afloat on a roulette wheel. A woman I _knew_ I recognized sloshed out of a fancy suite with a bottle of barnacle-encrusted champagne in each hand and a sack overflowing with strands of pearls, coins, and other loot slung across her back.

"Viper?" I blinked in disbelief. Emerald Viper was my wife's former student. She was from the West originally, although she usually ran a brothel in Nexus. As I understood it, she'd "gone to visit family" some six months ago. It hadn't occurred to me at the time that Viper was a three-hundred year old Lunar, and any mortal family she'd ever had would surely be long dead. I also wasn't surprised that she'd left her very stable, very profitable business for a little unscrupulous "adventure".

Though she had her better qualities, most of the time Viper was one of those Exalts who gave us all a bad name.

"Loren? What are _you_ doing here?" She demanded.

Viper was one of the few people who really knew me, both as Cathak Loren _and_ Alexander Faeslayer. She'd been involved in the whole mess with the Well of Udr _and_ the Heaven-Sent Sword.

" _Himitsu_ ," I said.

Viper's eyes narrowed. She flicked her snake tongue with an irritated huffing sound, just like her reptilian namesake. I didn't need to say anything else. Viper and I had a mutual friend who'd run afoul of Himitsu once before. Clever Devil lost her memories as a result of the encounter, and at least ten years off of her life. I knew I'd have a lot of explaining to do once we escaped, and I somewhat suspected that Viper would tell me "I told you so" and punch me at least once.

At any rate, we didn't have time for conversation. A wall of water was coming towards us. It took out the Deathknight, and it would have gotten us too if a dragon hadn't leapt in front of it, stopping the wave with his body before it would have drowned the little gods on the roulette wheel.

I was impressed by such an altruistic act from a god, since most of the ones I'd encountered were self-serving scoundrels. Of course, not a moment after he'd saved them, I heard the dragon tell one of the little gods, " _You owe me_ ".

 _That_ was exactly what I'd come to expect from Heaven.

The Last Resort was still going down, and the halls were an even more chaotic mess as the water carried us out of the casino. All of the ships that had been docked out front were either sunk, shattered, or long gone. The only boat that remained as Viper and I passed under the pirate gate was the pathetic little rowboat I'd arrived on, which Dani and Nick were already escaping with.

"Yarr!" Dozens of voices shouted. "Yarr! Yarr!"

Pirate goblins were clawing and scrambling towards us in droves, trying to escape being swallowed by the sea.

"Go," I told Viper. I pointed at Nick and Dani. "Those two have Maldict's prize! Don't kill them, but don't let them keep it either!"

Viper must have realized there was something wrong. She was probably drunk when we met, since that was her usual state, but she evidently noticed that I was rolling up my sleeves and not summoning my daiklave. Of course, I'd trained in martial arts since childhood and could brawl with the best… but a weapon in hand was more my style.

Even still, she didn't stick around. _Valor_ was _not_ one of her better qualities.

I punched and kicked my way through goblins until the water rose over their ugly little heads, and then for a little while longer as they all tried to climb up on me to save themselves. Eventually, I finished them all off, but I barely had the strength left to continue treading water. I'd also forgotten, apparently, that I'd been wounded while escaping from Maldict's prison.

I almost lost consciousness, floating out there in the middle of nothing but Wyld taint and the wreckage of the last resort. I expected to die, or to wake up with some pox too horrible to describe.

Then, I saw a familiar vessel cutting through the smoke and fog.

Peleps Naveen stared over the railing of his flagship.

"Cathak?" He gaped at me.

"I'm alive!" I shouted back, waving.

The sailors hauled me on board. They dried me off, and someone immediately brought me whiskey. Although I'm not usually much of a drinker, I could have kissed that man.

"It hasn't even been a day, and you've _sunk_ the Last Resort," the Admiral observed.

I took another drink of whiskey.

"To be fair, I had nothing to do with the sinking," I replied.

"And Maldict?" Naveen asked.

"Either dead, or likely to spend a long time putting himself back together. The same could be said for the rest of our foes," I admitted. That was the truth.

"What about the prize?" He pressed.

"I don't have it," I confessed.

His face fell.

"But," I finished. " _I know who does."_


	7. Chapter 7

Session 6#

Considering that Nick, Lilith, and Viper were not likely to make it very far in my rowboat, the Admiral set a course for the nearest inhabited island.

One of the most popular resort destinations in the Neck, the city of Shell was supposed to be beautiful, cheap to visit, and somewhat corrupt. Like the Last Resort, it was a popular destination for nightlife and gambling. Anything could be bought there for the right price.

I didn't know much about Nick or Lilith, and I hadn't seen their little Sidereal friend "Mina" aboard my boat, but I knew Viper would be most interested in heading towards Shell. Viper could be very persuasive when she wanted to be, and considering how Nick and Lilith had gone after Maldict's prize without knowing what it was, I suspected they wouldn't be very hard to sway with promises of loot and excitement.

The Sidereal was a wild card, and she had the potential to ruin everything depending on which faction she was associated with. I found myself hoping she'd either drowned or gone back to Yu Shan.

For the second time in four days, Peleps Naveen put me in a rowboat.

This time, however, I wasn't alone.

Three of Naveen's best soldiers were following me to the island, which made it even more important that I not ruin my ruse, despite how my patience was wearing thin. None of them were Dragonblooded, on account of the usual prejudices in the Neck, but I knew better than to doubt their ability… or their loyalty to the Realm. If I was found out, everyone would soon know, and this time, Heaven wouldn't bend Fate to keep my true nature a secret.

I turned to Sumi, my second-in-command. She'd risen as far in the ranks of the Realm's navy as a mere mortal could, and I had a healthy respect for her skill with a crossbow. When she wasn't in uniform, she looked softer than she usually did, which I suspected would cause others to lower their guard around her. That, of course, would be a mistake.

"Talonlord?" Sumi asked, reading the expression on my face.

"When we reach shore, we'll need to split up. You and Kale and search the resort area and the beach. Find out if any big spenders have arrived recently, and check where they might be staying."

Considering the bag of loot I'd last seen Viper carrying, that seemed like a sure thing. I felt comfortable sending Sumi after Viper, mostly because I knew that Viper wouldn't kill people if she could avoid it. Nick and Lilith, I suspected, would probably finish off anyone who got too close to them and then part out the bodies for jade. "I'll take Vaun and we'll check the slums to see if anyone's trying to sell Maldict's prize," I finished.

Vaun looked surprised. He was the most junior of the three soldiers, and probably expected to be assigned the easier job with Kale. While Sumi would have been more help on a covert investigation, Vaun was less likely to challenge me, and not as adept at tracking. I hoped I wouldn't have to run away from him, but it was certainly a possibility.

The four of us rowed ashore and pulled up along a deserted stretch of beach, lugging our boat up on the sand and tying it to a tree in case the high tide tried to claim it. Not far away, I could see conch shell walls, white roads made of crushed clams and pristine buildings with tall towers, big windows, and blue tile roofs. The place reminded me of the island of Calypsis, an island which had been my wife's favorite getaway over a thousand years ago. Of course, Calypsis had been reclaimed by the Wyld. Like Meru and so many other places I remembered, it was part of a world which no longer existed. Understanding how fragile Creation was made me more determined than ever to protect it.

Vaun followed me through town, watching the brightly-colored birds that flitted through the trees. When shop owners brought their goods out for his consideration or offered him samples of their freshly-prepared delicacies, he couldn't help stopping. I decided not to scold him. The less attention he was giving me, the better. Not for the first time, I found myself wishing I could extend my own perception with Charms. Normally, I could spot the best person to talk to in a crowd, determine if someone was lying, and get a good idea of what was going on in a given area with only a little expenditure of Essence.

We passed through the tourist area, crossing a low stone bridge and entered into the older part of town. Clotheslines crossed the streets above our heads. Children, pigs, and chickens scrambled around underfoot, and drunks were lying on the street, sleeping the day away in the shade of shuttered taverns, brothels, and residences. At night, the area was probably as lively as Nexus's infamous "Harlotry" district. During the day, it didn't look like anyone was doing much of anything.

At the end of the street was an old Realm-style mansion. It looked a bit like the Cathak Garel estate where I'd grown up, except it had been reclaimed partially by climbing jungle flowers and was in dire need of a new roof. The gilding and green paint was peeling off the large columns that made up the front porch, and a few women, barely dressed in the oppressive heat, were lounging in the windows. One of the whores, who was not immediately bad-looking, blew me a kiss. Her teeth were very bad, and I realized that she was pale _not_ because of the cloistered lifestyle of an elegant lady, but a nasty drug habit.

"So what should we be looking for?" Vaun asked.

"My guess is, whoever owns _that_ place runs this neighborhood," I pointed to the brothel.

"Straight to the top, eh?" Vaun observed, smiling slightly.

"Anything else is wasting time. I'll check it out. You check out the bar," I pointed, noting that an especially seedy little establishment was open for business. "I'll meet you back here in fifteen minutes."

"Are you sure that's going to be long enough?" He asked, noticing another of the women sitting in the windows of the mansion. She was waving to us with her nearly transparent, silvery scarf.

"I'm not _patronizing_ that dump," I told him.

Vaun seemed disappointed, but not surprised. I heard him mutter "Commander Monk" under his breath as he turned in the direction of the bar.

Of course, Vaun knew that I didn't like my men whoring around or drinking. A lack of temperance made for poor soldiers. Because of my attitude, my childhood nickname "Little Monk" still followed me. There was a special irony in being called "little" anything, since I'm well-over six foot tall. I ignored the jabs when they came. I didn't have anything to prove.

I sighed heavily and looked up at the midday sun. I could feel the light flowing through me as if I was made of glass, quickening the Essence in my veins, especially right between my eyes.

I got the impression that the Unconquered Sun wasn't sure what I was doing. Gods may be infinitely wiser than mortals, but they're not omniscient. I'd spent nearly ten years trying to deny the fact that I was an Exalt, which I supposed made my reluctance to use Essence seem a little suspicious from Heaven's perspective.

Several of the whores drifted towards me as I went into the brothel. The two who'd been sitting in the windows had seen me coming from the street, and although it wasn't their usual business hours, it was obvious that they were willing to make their coin whenever the opportunity presented itself.

"Well, hello, sugar," the woman with the bad teeth smiled. "I'm Iris, and this is my sister, Tansy. We're ever-so-pleased that you've come to visit us. It's been so long since we've had such a _handsome_ visitor."

Tansy looped her scarf around my neck.

"Ladies," I began to protest, but I didn't get the words out.

An older woman came down the stairs. She cleared her throat, and the whores both pulled away very quickly, as if they'd been caught breaking some rule.

"We're closed," the old woman informed me.

I'd never heard of a brothel _closing. "_ I'm not here for… services," I said, noting how the women reacted. They were obviously disappointed, and Iris made her displeasure known by kicking the corner of the door.

"I'm looking for a man," I paused. Nick wasn't easy to describe. He was of middling height, with brownish hair, a face that was in no way especially remarkable, and a wardrobe that might belong to any rogue for miles around. "He's um… about this tall, well-groomed, no beard, maybe twenty-five? He wears all black, and he might be in the company of a very aggressive woman with yellow hair who drinks a lot and dresses like a carnival hawker."

The madame considered. "The woman was here," she said.

"Where did she go?" I asked.

"How should I know? I threw her out. That one's got quite a mouth on her," she replied.

I nodded. I didn't know Lilith well, but that much was obvious.

"About how long ago was she here?" I pressed.

"Maybe three hours," the madam replied.

"Thanks," I replied, turning to walk away.

Out of the corner of my eye, I'd noticed something. The back door of the mansion was hanging ajar, and there was a meeting taking place on the porch.

A young Dragonblooded woman was sitting with a man I couldn't see, on the back porch overlooking the koi pond. The man was speaking in whispers, but his voice still sounded damned familiar, and I was immediately suspicious of him. Of course, I couldn't get a better look at what was going on without drawing the attention of the madame, who already seemed worried by my presence.

I excused myself and walked out.

"Anything?" Vaun asked, waiting for me on the street.

"We're on the right track," I nodded. "At very least, one of the women we're looking for was here."

Vaun nodded. "The bartender told me that a woman ordered some of his strongest brew. Drank it like it was water, and fell backwards off her bar stool. About twenty minutes ago."

"Good work, soldier," I told him, and he grinned.

We walked up and down the streets for another ten minutes, searching for evidence of our quarry. When I saw a dog acting strangely, I sent Nick into a blacksmith's shop to ask questions and continued down the road alone. As I headed towards the edge of town, and altercation in the middle of the street drew my attention.

It was the young Dragonblood from the brothel, the only I'd only barely seen sitting on the back porch. Nick was standing across from her on the road, accompanied by a dog that I was certain had to be Lilith.

"I want to make you an offer," the dragonblood said. "A lot of money for some easy work."

Nick glanced at the dog.

"We're listening," Lilith said.

The Dragonblood looked surprised to hear a dog speak, but she didn't shout "Anathema" or back up a single step. Of course, I'd met outcastes before who willingly associated with "demons" because they preferred their company over that of the Realm, but it still seemed unusual to me that any Dragonblood would be so calm in the presence of a Lunar.

"A friend of mine has a cargo that he needs unloaded. It has to happen tonight on the far side of the island. Nobody can know what you're doing, and nobody can know when the task is done," the Dragonblood explained. "You'll be paid very well."

Lilith and Nick pretended to consider.

"We'll do it," Nick said.

 _Of course they will_ , I thought grimly to myself.

"Is there somewhere more private where we could discuss the details?" Lilith asked.

The Dragonblood gestured in the direction of the brothel. Nick and Lilith followed her as she led them through a narrow gate on the side of the building and around to the back.

I was about to follow when Vaun came back.

"Anything?" He asked.

"Go find Sumi," I instructed him. "Tell her that the ones we're looking for are involved in some sort of smuggling business. Something is going to happen tonight. I'll find out when and where."

I was still considering whether I should let the Admiral's soldiers know what I'd learned or not. As I saw it, that depended on _what_ was being smuggled by _whom._ The fact that the Dragonblood's mysterious employer _sounded_ familiar to me was _not_ a good sign.

I still wasn't in any condition to fight, and if things did get out of hand, there was a good chance I'd have to break my promise to Himitsu in order to survive. The Admiral's doctor had patched me up with some of his Charms, but I was still wounded… and armed with a sword I'd probably shatter the moment I struck something with it.

I crept around the side of the old mansion and strained to listen to what was being said. Over the sounds of someone playing a harp rather poorly and someone else working in the kitchen, I could only make out a few words. "After dark" and "a cave on the far end of the island" was something, however, so I decided to leave with what I'd learned before I got caught.

I made my way back to the quieter, cleaner, part of town and sat down at a waterfront bar. It was close to midday, and the sunbathers who'd been on the beach in the early morning had retreated to the shade for cold drinks and platters of fresh local fruits. A woman poured me a tall glass of something that smelled sweet. It turned out to be sugar cane juice, from a pile of cane that another local was cutting and crushing not ten feet away. There was a little alcohol mixed in also, but nothing that would affect my judgment. I'd have to consume a lot more of it to be impaired, although from how sweet and smooth it was, I gathered that would probably be easy to do.

As I sipped on my drink, I noticed the Sidereal from the Last Resort. "Mina" seemed very drunk, and she was chatting with the bartender, a very attractive local woman. It seemed that she was making sloppy passes at the bartender, who was propping her up every so often and telling her she was "sweet" in an almost condescending way.

Then Mina leaned in and whispered something which got quite the reaction out of the bartender. I didn't hear what it was, but the woman bolted out the back door as if she'd been set on fire. Mina followed her, and I was tempted to go after them myself when the Admiral's soldiers found me.

I cursed and slumped back down into my seat. With the three of them around, one thing I definitely did not want to do was tussle with Sidereals.

"Any luck?" I asked Sumi.

She snorted. "I went through the lists of the rich travelers who've come here since the Last Resort sank. None of them match the descriptions of the ones you're looking for."

"That's because the ones we're looking for are hiding out in the slums," I replied. "And so far as I've seen, the woman with the money isn't with them. But I don't think she's involved in whatever they're doing. They may have parted ways." That was the truth. I hoped it sounded honest. Sumi seemed to be wondering how I could know such a thing. I had no intention of explaining my relationship with Emerald Viper.

"Well, it sounds like we have some time," Sumi considered the situation. "We should look for that cave."

"I think we need to find out who that Dragonblood is working for also," I added. "And where the other girl went. She could potentially have the key."

I was sure that Nick still had Maldict's prize, but I wanted everyone to split up again. It was easier to manage and deceive my "helpers" if they weren't working together.

"We need more soldiers," Sumi said, obviously not liking the situation.

"The Admiral doesn't want this to look like a military operation," I reminded her. "Technically the Realm doesn't have any authority in this part of the West."

"I'm not sure anyone has any authority in this part of the West," Sumi replied.

She wasn't wrong about that.

In the end, Sumi went back to check the hotel bar for Mina, who I'd already seen running for the edge of town. Kale and Vaun returned to the slums to look for the Dragonblood, and I was on my own, watching for Lilith and Nick. I had every intention of leaving them to their own devices while I found out what the Sidereal was doing, but I barely made it three blocks down the road when I heard some commotion starting inside the local bank. I quietly slipped inside and dunked behind the counter. Several staff members seemed nervous, as if they thought the place was in the process of being robbed.

What Lilith and Nick were up to, I couldn't begin to guess. They were standing in the middle of the room, and the Lunar was holding a safe-deposit box that had apparently been ripped directly out of the wall.

"It's my box," Nick said, pointing to the number on it. "I bought and paid for it."

The bank teller he was arguing with looked concerned, but they obviously did not intend to argue with him. They gave the two a wide berth as they went out the front door.

"What was that about?" The man crouched behind the counter next to me hissed.

"No idea," I replied.

The two went right out the front door, and as soon as I could follow them, I discovered they were gone.

Not having anything else to do, I decided to track down the Sidereal. That was easier said than done, particularly since I hadn't seen her in at least an hour. There was an unusual storm brewing atop the mountain just outside of town, and I decided that was worth investigating. I made sure I wasn't being followed and set off into the forest.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

A stormcloud was gathering suspiciously at the highest point of the island. Since I didn't know what or who might be causing it, I made my way towards the disturbance. When I got close enough to get a good look at what was going on, I saw the very attractive bartender from earlier. She looked extremely distressed. Wind whipped around her, and I realized that her sleek black hair was a wig. Underneath, her hair was hacked short and white as snow. The white hair and the wind moving around the woman told me that she was a Storm Mother, one of the deadly wind goddesses of the West.

I knew that a Storm Mother's hair was the source of her powers and enabled her to fly as well as employ her formidable magic. Who, or what, had hacked off this Storm Mother's hair was something that seemed very important to find out. I arrived too late to hear the beginning of the conversation as it took place, but Mina was standing across from the Storm Mother trying to extract information from her.

I gathered that the other Storm Mothers were embarrassed that one of their sisters had been so humiliated and possibly intended to kill her. The Sidereal had made the mistake of identifying the poor, nearly powerless goddess as a former Storm Mother, which had alerted the spies of the other Storm Mothers to her location. Now, she had no choice but to flee to another island. The Storm Mother leapt into the gathering clouds and disappeared.

Mina cast Flight of Separation _again_ and flew off. For a small girl, she certainly had a lot of Essence.

As I went down the mountain, considering what I'd learned, I heard Lilith and Nick arguing on the path below me. The time of the mysterious job was apparently at hand, and they were heading to the secret dock.

I kept my head down and followed them. I noticed immediately that I wasn't the only one worried about what the two were up to. Mina was not far behind me.

Docked on the far end of the island in a well-hidden natural harbor was a magnificent First Age ship. From top to bottom, it was as black as the night sky, virtually invisible where it sat on the water. The magic that surely was involved in its construction was impressive by any standards, not that I was surprised.

Two figures, a ghost full of swords and arrows, and a living man sat on the deck, watching Lilith, Nick, and the Dragonblood as they began unloading cargo.

The man overseeing the operation I recognized immediately. His black hair was as unruly as ever, looking permanently windblown. He needed to shave, and had severe dark circles under his eyes, which made his usual, somewhat twitchy mannerisms seem more pronounced, like the behavior of someone who was either insane or addicted to dangerous drugs. I expected a both.

 _Tetsuo "_ The Secret Thief" did have a certain reputation.

Unlike most Sidereals, he made not the slightest attempt to pass for an ordinary mortal. His flashy green velvet coat had cufflinks emblazoned with the seal of Jupiter. If the rumors could be believed, Tetsuo was the son of the god Naara-O who led the Division of Secrets, and the sometimes-lover of the Maiden herself.

Even if the rumors were rubbish and he was only what I knew him to be - a smuggler bold enough to double-cross demons and Deathlords, I still thought it safest to give him a wide berth.

"It appears we have company," Tetsuo announced.

At first, I thought I'd been detected, but then I saw that Mina had stumbled on a root and almost fallen directly onto the deck of the nearly-invisible ship.

"What's going on here?" She demanded. "Who are you?"

"I ought to ask you the same question," Tetsuo replied.

"My name is Mina," she said.

"Well, that's a lie," Tetsuo retorted. Of course, no Sidereal would really be fooled by another Sidereal's Resplendent Destiny. "Either show your true face, or get lost. I don't deal with people I don't know."

The Sidereal scowled. She weighed the situation and then did something I'd seen one of her brethren do only once before. She dropped her mortal disguise.

Sidereals have the ability to make themselves seem like almost anyone. As it turned out, "Mina" was a fairly impressive ruse. The young girl shattered into fragments of green light and everyone was left staring at a man, probably thirty years old, with a shock of windblown white hair and a starmetal gauntlet on his left arm. He also carried an intimidating-looking cleaver.

"Penumbra," the Sidereal that had been "Mina" said, introducing himself.

That sounded more like a Sidereal's true name than "Tetsuo" did. I had some limited experience with Tetsuo myself. From what I understood, he wasn't to be trusted _at all._ Who he really worked for, nobody knew, but he had a certain talent for evading trouble even as he flagrantly disobeyed every last law of Heaven.

Tetsuo looked immeasurably pleased with himself.

Penumbra looked ready to punch someone.

Lilith and Nick had stopped unloading cargo, and they mostly looked confused. The ghost stepped forward, his hand on the hilt of his sword. He positioned himself at Tetsuo's side, sending a very clear message that he would quickly dispatch anyone foolish enough to threaten his master.

"Are you happy now?" Penumbra demanded. Obviously, he wasn't as well-appraised of the situation as he wanted to be. I suspected the Sidereal would be writing scores of letters at first opportunity. That was what most of the Sidereals I knew did, when Fate refused to shape itself as they felt it should. As I understood it, the entire Celestial Bureaucracy was a mess… and a good part of surviving within it consisted of knowing who to direct your complaints towards, and who to bribe when necessary.

Tetsuo only smiled.

The ghost lowered his sword. The illicit cargo had all been unloaded into the cave. Ayumi uncorked a bottle of wine, and Tetsuo motioned for Nick and Lilith to join him aboard his ship. He produced a stack of papers that I guessed was some kind of convoluted Celestial contract.

The last thing I heard clearly was Tetsuo delivering an ultimatum.

"You have two options," he said. "Either you work for me, or you leave now and try your damnedest to prove that any of this every happened."

"What are you smuggling?" Penumbra asked.

"Unimportant," Tetsuo replied casually. He was obviously lying. I was certain that whatever was concealed in those crates was rare, valuable, and highly illegal.

Penumbra didn't look like he wanted to be sociable, but he took the chair that was offered and sat down across from Tetsuo to read his contract. I settled in to listen to their conversation, and would have probably waited where I was most of the night if a hand hadn't tapped me on the shoulder.

It was Sumi.

"What's going on down there?" She whispered.

"I'm still not entirely sure. Smuggling, I suspect. But what, I don't know… and the situation seems delicate." I pointed to Penumbra and Tetsuo, who were still glaring at each other, and then to Lilith who did not look very happy with Ayumi, who was still sitting on her safe deposit box.

"I've never seen a ship like that before," Vaun remarked, staring at the Unseen Slicer of Waves.

"Nor are you likely to again. That's a First Age vessel," I told him. "There aren't many of them in the world."

"Do you think it has weapons?" Sumi wondered.

"Mm. Doubtful. Maybe cannons or implosion bows, but nothing extraordinary," I admitted. "It's not a warship. Or, at least… it _wasn't_ a warship when it was originally built."

"Looks like a warship to me," Vaun said.

"It's _not_ ," I corrected him, though I wasn't about to explain how I knew.

Tetsuo glanced up in our direction, and I realized my hiding place wasn't serving as well as I'd hoped it would.

"Get out of here," I ordered. "Go back to the Admiral. I'll catch up with you," I promised.

Sumi looked ready to argue, but Vaun tugged on her sleeve and she ran after him. Tetsuo motioned for his ghostly minion to investigate my hiding place, and I climbed back down into the cave. When I was satisfied that no one was still looking for us, I quietly approached one of the crates which seemed to have a loose lid. I opened it, and stared at dozens of blue glass bottles packed in hay.

At first, I thought they were drugs of some kind, but then I realized I'd stumbled upon something far more valuable and dangerous.

The lifeblood of the Gods was a liquor distilled from the essence of prayers which made them powerful and immortal.

 _Quintessence._

Tetsuo was smuggling _quintessence_ out of Heaven.

I grimaced. If Penumbra didn't know what was going on already, he _wasn't_ going to be pleased. _Himitsu_ wasn't going to like it either.

"Himitsu?" I whispered, wondering if he was observing me. The Sidereal was damned stealthy when he needed to be, and when we'd first met he'd gotten into my bedroom and nearly killed me without alerting a soul.

There was no response.

That was when I noticed a piece of paper inside the crate.

 _Circumstances necessitate the renegotiation of the terms of our contract._

It read, in Himitsu's impeccable penmanship.

 _Retrieve the key by any means necessary._

I didn't know what "the key" was. Maldict's prize seemed like a good guess.

The words "any means necessary" did make me smile, however.

Things were about to get interesting.


End file.
